at this rate, how long will be it be before indian average wages catch up with the west? not that long, if it can be sustained.

whether growth can be sustained is the $64 million question. the recent rate increase and CRR increase by the RBI is another attempt to squish growth (thank you, montek singh ahulwalia) and thus inflation.

The limeys at the "Economist" and other media in Britain regularly poke fun at India & Indians and still think that "Britannia Rules the Waves, and the Wave of Rules". Not so anymore. Somebody needs to Bitch-Slap these sorry guys and put them in their place. Which is what Iran is doing right now. It arrested fifteen British marines & sailors for intruding into its waters and has refused to release them. It even made the lone woman among them to wear the 'Hijab' and condemn her own country for its Iraqi invasion.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

these guys are waiting for a big acquisition to fail miserably, as one will, sooner rather than later. and note the little taunt at the end about cricket. (not that it bothers me, but it might the legions of the faithful).

Ambika Soni , a sworn anti-Hindu Christian Minister in the Sonia-controlled pseudo-secular surrogate UPA Government in New Delhi, had recently stated in the Rajya Sabha that there is no credible archaeological evidence regarding the history and construction of Rama Sethu Bridge in Rameshwaram. More than 800 million Hindus of India know that there is an unholy combination bordering on conspiracy against the mute Hindus of India between the non-Hindus like Sonia Gandhi and Ambika Soni in the UPA Government and the known anti-Hindu elements in the DMK led Coalition Government in Tamilnadu to somehow destroy the Ramar Sethu Bridge which has been a resplendent symbol of Hindu culture and civilization from the dawn of history. All the Sankarachariars in India who are being treated like stateless refugees from Pakistan or Bangladesh by the declared anti-Hindu UPA Government in New Delhi, have jointly issued a statement condemning the political move of the Government of India to destroy the Ramar Sethu Bridge with gay pseudo-secular abandon. Hindu groups from around the world like Esha Vasayam USA, Hindu Forum of Britain, Hindu Collective Initiative of America Hindu Forum of Belgium, Hindu Council of Australia Hindu Human Rights, Hindu Council of Holland Italian Hindu Union, Hindu Council of Africa National Council of Hindu Temples UK, Hindu Conference of Canada Caribbean Sanatan Dharma Mahasabha, Mauritius Sanatan Dharma Temples Federation and Federation of Hindu Temples in France have jointly launched the global campaign to preserve the Rama Sethu Bridge, a chain of shoals connecting India and Sri Lanka which according to the epic of Valmiki Ramayana was created by Lord Rama's troupes. All these groups have jointly issued a Statement on the day of Rama Navami on 27 March, 2007 :

'We call upon the Government of India to immediately cease the destruction of the holy Ram Sethu Bridge between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge is an ancient monument held sacred by over one billion Hindus in the world as we believe it was built by Lord Ram during an epic war.

The destruction this bridge will not only offend our religious sentiments, but will also pose a great risk to the environment, oceanic life and the Indian coastline. It will also endanger the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in the local area.

The Government of India is entitled to take steps to protect the commercial and trade interests of India. However, such steps should not be at the cost of offending the religious sentiments of millions of Hindus around the world. The Ram Sethu Bridge is as sacred to Hindus as the Wailing Wall is to Jews, the Vatican to Catholics, Mecca to Muslims, and Gaya to Buddhists and the Golden Temple to Sikhs. The Save Ram Sethu Campaign requests that:

1. The SSCP should immediately stop all dredging work and withdraw all equipment forthwith from the site.

2. The Government of India should immediately set up an independent Commission that will oversee a second round of consultations. This is to ensure that views of we take in to account the oft repeated warnings, highly critical reviews and troubling questions raised by world renowned specialists and experts on the disastrous effects on the environment and livelihood of people in the region.

3. The SSCP should take into account the offence and hurt being felt by millions of Hindus around the world about the destruction of one of their holiest religious sites.

All the Sankarachariars met in New Delhi about 10 days ago and have firmly resolved to fight together to face the unprecedented onslaught against time-honoured Hindu culture and Hindu traditions. They have authorized Dr Subramanian Swamy, former Union Law Minister to carry on the crusade on behalf of the Hindus of India for the preservation of the Rama Sethu Bridge. Dr Subramanian Swamy has sent a letter on 27 March, 2007 to Mrs.Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Culture, raising fundamental legal, administrative, quasi-judicial and cultural issues. I am giving below the full text of his letter:

Dear Mrs Ambika Soni

I write this letter in connection with the status of the Rama Setu (known in English as 'Adams Bridge') under Section 4(1) of the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act (1959).

The Rama Setu is a formation of shoal stones of 30 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide which served for many centuries as foot-bridge from Dhanushkodi on the coast of Tamilnadu to Sri Lanka.

It is a very, very old historic formation, and hence would come within the expression 'ancient monument'. The Brahma Sarovar at Kurukshetra

was on a similar consideration declared by the Punjab and Haryana High Court {cf. AIR 1993 P&H 204} as an ancient monument.

Judged by your answer to an Unstarred Question in Rajya Sabha in this current Budget Session, it is clear that the Government have so far not conducted any study to determine the nature, antiquity, and heritage value of the Rama Setu.

However, at the non-governmental level, as also on the basis of Hindu scriptures, it is a widely held opinion that Rama Setu is the formation to facilitate Vishnu Avatara Maryada Purushottama Sri Rama and his army to cross the Palk Strait, as described in detail in Valmiki Ramayana and other scriptures.

That such a formation per se exists has been admitted by you in answer to the said Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question, which answer is confirmed by US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) through satellite mapping and imaging.

I urge you therefore to initiate action u/s 4 (1) of the said Act r/w Rule 31 in order to notify officially the Rama Setu as an Ancient Monument.

An early reply would be appreciated. If there are any documentation in further support of this contention is necessary, please let me know'.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in a historic order delivered in 1993 ( AIR 1993 P & H 2004 ) declared the Brahma Sarovar at Kurukshetra as an 'ANCIENT MONUMENT' under Section 4 (1) of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act read with Rule 31 of the same Act. They declared Brahma Sarovar as a very, very old historic formation and hence qualified for notification as an Ancient Monument. The following cultural, spiritual and religious considerations had weighed with the Punjab and Haryana High Court in passing this order of timeless significance. These considerations seem to be irrelevant to the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting, Hindu-hating and Nation-destroying minority UPA Government in New Delhi nominally led by an unelected and nominated Prime Minister.

Among the holiest of water tanks in India, the BRAHMA SAROVAR in Kurukshetra is an important national and international tourist centre in Haryana State. It has been the cradle of Indian civilization from times immemorial. It was at this sacred spot that Lord Brahma, the Creator of the Universe, conceived the Earth. This tank has been renovated and it measures 8600 ' 1500 feet. A dip in the Sarovar is viewed as a mark of sanctity of performing Ashwamedha Yajna, which, the scriptures say, absolves one of all the sins of the terrestrial world. The months of November and December are the time when migratory birds flock around Brahma Sarovar and create a beautiful environment adding to the ancient and hoary sanctity of the place.

It is also believed that the Rig Veda was composed between 1500 and 1000 BC in this place.

From a historical perspective, it was here that the theological and philosophical framework of Hinduism was forged between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD. It was here that nascent Hinduism, as we know it today emerged. Tradition holds that the great 18-day battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas in which Lord Krishna played his crucial catalytic part, as described in the pages of the epic Mahabharata, was fought on the plains of KURUKSHETRA. The sacred site of Kurukshetra today preserves the memory of this great battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Kurukshetra is also known as Dharmakshetra' the region of the Dharma. Today, Kurukshetra, more than any other place in India, is the miniature image of the religious universe of the Hindus.

Any responsible Union Minister for Culture, who respects the cultural, spiritual and religious traditions, feelings and sentiments of more than 800 millions of Hindus in majority in India, would have declared the Rama Sethu Bridge as an Ancient Monument under Section 4 (1) of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act on par with Brahma Sarovar in Kurukshetra on the same analogy and for similar and equally forceful and valid reasons. In my view Mrs Ambika Soni, a non-Hindu Union Minister for Culture is guilty of gross dereliction of bounden national duty. The Hindus of India view her as a propped up symbol of India's cultural and spiritual subversion and decimation. But it is not easy to sell the message of either humane culture or humanity or reason or compassion to the national soul-destroying anti-Hindu UPA Government in New Delhi. I can use the language of the Bible to describe the soulless UPA Government. At the beginning was the Minority Vote Bank. The Minority Vote Bank was with the UPA Government. And the UPA Government was Minority Vote Bank. All the mute and helpless Hindu millions of India must unite and say in one voice to all the politicians of India : 'Let the word go forth from this time and place that we are proud of being Hindus ! We are proud of being spiritual Hindus! We are proud of being religious Hindus ! We are proud of being cultural Hindus ! We are proud of being National and International Hindus ! We are ashamed of being anti-social and anti-national pseudo-secular Hindus ! Finally we are not afraid of being strong political Hindus to assert our fundamental rights through all constitutional and democratic means to make our vivid, vital and vibrant united Hindu voice being heard not only in India but in all the Councils of the world !'.

By interfacing design software with a laser-cutting machine, architectural company Bell-Travers-Willson has come up with a way to quickly design and build customized homes with minimal effort.

So you design your home on a computer screen, and then computer software will process that design shape into a series of small wooden lego-style blocks, which can then be fabricated by a computer-controlled laser-cutting machine.

You can see those lego type blocks in the third and fourth pictures on the page. These hollow blocks are of a size that only one or two people are required to lift them. No cranes or heavy equipment are required, as a pile of these blocks can be transported to the site for lego-style assembly. So an entire house can be assembled just from these custom-made blocks -- even a large house like in the first photo.

India has a lumber industry, and there is a strong demand for affordable housing for the poor.

Indians like to brag about how much value they've added to businesses through the use of IT-enabled services. But has anyone really considered applying IT towards something as fundamental as providing shelter?

Young leaders deserve respect. They empathize better than do older people with the young, who are in a majority. They are not responsible for mistakes committed by the older generation. Most of their perceptions are derived from their forefathers. Finally, as younger people, they have a greater stake in the future than do older people. The recent utterances of Rahul Gandhi during his UP poll campaign need to be assessed in this light....

Rahul Gandhi is evidently the great Congress hope for reviving the glory of the dynasty. A majority of Congress party members, and possibly a majority of Indians generally, would concur with the view that India's best years were spent under governance of the Nehru- Gandhi dynasty. A vast number of Indians polled were of the view that Indira Gandhi was the best Prime Minister this nation ever had. A distinguished contemporary historian wrote, some time ago, that without Congress he believed there would be no India. Faith in the dynasty's ability to revive Congress deserves respect therefore because, quite possibly, it reflects the majority view.

However, there is also a minority view. This scribe represents an extreme section of it. To assess the efficacy of the majority view the minority view deserves attention. I take the liberty of expressing it with total candour.

Contrary to the contemporary historian's view that there would be no India without the Congress, I believe there will never be an independent India until the Congress --not Congress leadership --is buried fathoms deep. All political parties in India derive their culture from the Congress. The burial of the Congress would imply therefore burial of an all pervasive political culture. India's political activity up to now has been in the shadow of the Congress. To justify burial of the Congress a brief outline seems necessary of the dissident view of recent history.

The Congress was created by the British to provide means for peaceful dissent after the violent Kuka revolt and the 1857 Mutiny. Free political expression by Indians enabled the British to govern wisely. Throughout the Congress's freedom struggle, the British exercised influence over Congress leaders. There is no dearth of archival data to vindicate this fact.

chennai and hyderabad are too big and expensive for low-end call center type work coimbatore would be the number 1 hot prospectmysore is good tookerala not really because of too much political agitation and poor-quality educationcalcutta for innumerable reasons.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

on the part of indian intelligence as well. they are now beefing up, belatedly, the southern air command in trivandrum, which, appallingly, has had no fighter jets at all -- nothing but unmanned drones.

recently, the ma'dani outfit ndf attacked a police station in malappuram district, kerala? why, because a couple of mohammedans had been picked up for questioning (i think in relation to the murders of several hindus in tanur and tirur.)

the indian police have no right to question mohammedans, them being above the law.

and where were the 'secular' 'progressives' who want the "law to take its course" when the kanchi acharya is framed, but want the convicted murderer to be released when such murderer (afzal) is a mohammedan?

i guess as a nonsmoker i am happy about this, but the increasing intrusion of the judiciary into personal matters (and sins) is slightly worrisome. it's better than the State intruding, but still... the judiciary in india is also vulnerable to State pressure.

i am conflicted about whether this is a good thing. on the one hand, design and manufacturing can cross-fertilize each other, so that design for manufacturability can be enforced. that is a major part of the argument made by people talking about the hollowing of american industry.

on the other hand, chip fabs are famously exploitative of power and especially water. yes, shahryar, we *could* desalinate seawater for these fabs, but that would add dramatically to the capital and operating costs.

fortunately, the idea that india too can unilaterally abrogate treaties has at least been mooted once or twice. this is an american specialty. and what are the americans going to do? invade? is that before or after they invade iran? and surely after they have 'won' in iraq and afghanistan?

India: US ally or target?Manmohan stealthily works India's nuclear surrender By M.D. Nalapat

Fortunately for their name in posterity, the country's official nuclear establishment has explicitly raised serious technical objections and efforts by Manmohan Singh and Montek Ahluwalia to crush on behalf of Sonia Maino have thus far failed.

For reasons best known to herself, the de facto Prime Minister of the UPA government, Sonia Maino Gandhi has apparently directed Manmohan Singh to agree to the extremely harsh conditions offered so contemptuously to this country by the Bush White House. As usual working in total secrecy, two drafts of the proposed "123" Agreement, have been formally exchanged, and both Manmohan Singh as well as Pranab Mukherjee are forcing the bureaucracy into embarking on a "conclusive" round of negotiations without winning any non-verbal and symbolic concessions from the US side. These discussions, will be held from March 26 to 30, 2007, and are ostensibly to "reconcile the differences that remain and work out the way forward" to the surrender of India's nuclear capabilities.

Brahma Chellaney's blog has a couple of interesting articles on Japan.

B would like Japan to open up it's universities to Indian students - an idea which I have supported in the past. The reservation happy Indian universities cannot do much- and read this depressing piece if you have not had enough http://www.indianexpress.com/story/26851.html

Japan - (and not the Paki supporting, two-faced Yanks with whom our Non-PM is cutting pseudo-deals) is the most important partner in the coming years. American markets are good to exploit - but geo-politics is bad to live with.

there is some truth to this. after all, the LTTE (just like the nepali communists) have a suspiciously large number of christists among their leaders.

india needs to be very careful dealing with the LTTE and the sinhalese. whoever controls the great port of trincomalee is india's friend.

the biggest supporters of the LTTE, the 'dravidian' rogues, are not interested in india's interests. the entire 'dravidian' hoax is a christist fabrication, and the 'dravidians' are, if not crypto-christists, quite closely allied with them.

we have seen how fanatic the 'dravidians' are. so you can imagine how fanatical suicide-pill-wearing LTTE cadres are. you don't get that way unless you are a semite. only a desert-civilization person can be so fundamentalistic, so much into dying and killing for your mythologies.

While being the most popular military fiction and science fiction show on TV today, its story also has a number of interesting Indian themes. The human protagonists are explicitly depicted as polytheistic, while their robotic Cylon adversaries are explicitly depicted as monotheistic fanatics. The opening theme song of the TV show is a recitation of the Gayatri Mantra from the Rig Veda. While the show is set in an imaginary science fiction backdrop of outer space, the plot revolves around the challenges faced by a democratic pluralistic society in confronting an implacable militaristic foe which resorts constantly to terrorism. An interestingly darker re-imagining of the original campy 1970s series.

The closing scene of the Season 3 Finale episode features an unusual musical accompaniment of Bob Dylan's song, "All Along the Watchtower"Hmm, the citar music was alright, but I really liked how they integrated the lyrics of Dylan's song into the dialogue in that episode. Nice touch.

Tibet was never always a part of China. Mao gobbled it up in 1951, with Chacha Nehru being a mute spectator. Thanks to Chacha, now we have the Dragon on our borders. If Chacha had acted then with Britain & America's help, Communist China could have been driven out of Tibet. If China didn't have a common border with India before 1951, then they can't claim Arunachal Pradesh to be theirs. The Chinese believe that once a territory has been conquered by them at some point in time, then it belongs to them for all times to come. If so, they should use the same logic and return Manchuria to Japan which conquered it during World War II, before asking for Arunachal Pradesh from us. Here is an article by Claude Arpi from the Pioneer which discusses China & Tibet. Reproducing in full as Pioneer doesn't archive...

China is a 20th century idea

Claude Arpi

The nation of China evolved as an idea not more than 100 years ago. Then how could Tibet have always existed as a part of China?

A conversation with the Dalai Lama in the 1980s has remained in my memory. The conversation included the future of Tibet and China. The Dalai Lama told me, "The changes will come from inside China. In fact, we, Tibetans have nothing to do except to keep our faith and culture intact. But watch, changes will happen inside China".

Twenty years later, I am not sure if the Tibetan leader has kept the same view, but some recent news has made me believe that things are changing in China.

First, a leading Chinese historian has recently taken a different stand than the usual official line on China's historical sovereignty over Tibet. Professor Ge Jianxiong, director of the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography at Fudan University in Shanghai, stated in an article in China Review: "It would be a defiance of history to claim that Tibet has always been a part of China since the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th century)."

Prof Ge noted: "At least [Tibet] was not administered by the Tang Dynasty." His point is that otherwise, "there would have been no need for the Tang emperor of the day to offer Princess Wen Cheng in a 'marriage of state' to the Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo." According to him, Tibet's takeover during the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty (17th to early 20th century) was the starting point for Chinese 'sovereignty' over the Himalayan region.

Ge's interpretation is different from the official Communist Party line. Ge pointed out that before the foundation of the Republic of China in 1912, the idea of China (Chinese, Zhongguo) wasn't clearly conceptualised. Even during the late Manchu dynasty, the term 'China' would on occasion be used to refer to the "Qin State, including all the territory that fell within the boundaries of the Qing empire; though at times, it would refer only to the '18 interior provinces'. Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang were not included."

Prof Ge goes a step further: "If China really wishes to rise peacefully and be on a solid footing to face the future, we must understand the sum of our history and learn from our experiences."

There are changes occurring in the Middle Kingdom. They include a series of three letters written to the Chinese President by Phuntso Wangye, a veteran Tibetan Party leader. Wangye was the first Tibetan Communist in the forties and in September 1951, he led the Chinese troops into Lhasa. Analysts believe that the letters may signal a debate in the Communist hierarchy on a possible return of the Dalai Lama and could unblock the current negotiations between representatives of the Tibetan leader and Beijing.

In one of his letters written in 2006, Phuntso Wangye (Phunwang for the Tibetans) pointed his finger at Yin Fatang, a former party boss in Tibet. He told the Chinese President that the Dalai Lama had declared that he just wanted greater autonomy, not independence: "But Chinese and Tibetan Leftists, or conservatives, are convinced otherwise and regularly denounce him for trying to split Tibet from the Chinese 'motherland'."

Yin Fatang, first secretary of the Communist Party in Tibet from 1980 to 1985, is a hardliner associated with the demolition of a monastery in Sichuan Province in 2001. The Serthar Buddhist Institute, founded in Kardze in the 1980s, had soon become the largest religious concentration on the Tibetan plateau with some 7,000 monks and nuns. Probably because of the fact that thousands of Chinese, who had joined the Institute, demonstrating the increased interest in Tibetan Buddhist teachings, the Institute was closed in 2001 and most of its buildings razed.

Yin Fatang has another distinction. In the 1980s, he initiated the railway line to Lhasa by bringing the matter to the knowledge Deng Xiaoping. Mr Yin later recalled: "Before I mentioned the railway, Xiaoping talked about it himself since he paid much attention to the railway. He said that we must start the project soon."

According to Yin, Deng was keen on the project: "Deng Xiaoping's words showed his dedication and desire for the railway. He stated, "The plateau cannot wait any longer and China cannot wait any longer." For the integrity of Tibetan culture and India's security, it is undoubtedly the most dangerous project of the century.

To come back to Phunwang's letter, he told Hu that Beijing was mistaken in believing that the Tibetan issue would be solved with the death of the present Dalai Lama: "Any notion of delaying the problem until after the 14th Dalai Lama dies a natural death is not only naïve, but also tactically wrong."

On the contrary, Phunwang warned the Chinese leadership that the Tibetan leader's demise would only radicalise young Tibetan hardliners frustrated with his 'middle way'. He reminded the Chinese President about his objective to establish a harmonious society. If he strived for the return of hundreds of thousands of exiled Tibetans, he could turn 'confrontation into harmony'. Phunwang concluded: "wrong Leftist policies continue... in Tibet... It should cease."

First Tibetan Communist, Phunwang's dream to see a modern and socialist Tibet in his lifetime seemed to be coming true when one day in April 1958, he was unexpectedly arrested and told that he needed to 'cleanse his thinking'. During the following 18 years, he was interrogated, tortured and jailed in the most atrocious conditions. He was finally rehabilitated at the end of the seventies when Deng Xiaoping decided to see 'the truth through the facts'.

Ge's article and Phunwang's letter are important at a time when the leadership of China is not yet settled and rumours speak of a possible tussle between Hu Jintao and Vice President Zeng Qinghong for the post of President during the Communist Party's 17th Congress to be held this fall.

Another big change in China is highlighted in a recent poll by East China Normal University which estimates that 31.4 percent of Chinese above 16 years old have religious leanings, which means roughly 400 million believers.

"what if pulses are too expensive? let them eat dog-food!" quoth palaniappan "marie antoinette" chidambaram, by reducing the duties on pet food in the budget.

btw, anybody remember the gyro-man fighting with the dog over the remains of a can of dog-food in 'mad max'? great little touch.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Moksha

Rahul and a self goalBy Sandhya Jain

As a launch-pad remark for the party's campaign for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, it must have struck deep gloom in the rank and file and skewed Congress' already slender chances with the electorate. Though Mr. Gandhi's remarks are consistent with the policy of UPA chairperson, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, of appeasing and promoting Muslims at the expense of the Hindu poor and backward classes, the policies have already led to a backlash.

Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the Congress party's greatest rootless wonder, surpassing Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's attitude of 'if there is no bread, let them eat dog food,' with the foolish remark that his father would have stood in front of the Babri Masjid to prevent the demolition of December 6, 1992.

As a launch-pad remark for the party's campaign for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, it must have struck deep gloom in the rank and file and skewed Congress' already slender chances with the electorate. Though Mr. Gandhi's remarks are consistent with the policy of UPA chairperson, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, of appeasing and promoting Muslims at the expense of the Hindu poor and backward classes, the policies have already led to a backlash for the party in Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttarakhand, and further reversals are expected in Delhi. Indeed, this is reportedly the reason why Congress president Sonia Gandhi has refused to canvass for the party in the capital, though she did rush to Mumbai because she expected a victory that would add a feather to her cap.

Rahul Gandhi's statement shows that either the party has learned nothing from these reverses, or that it has no other constituency to woo. Either way, he has exposed the utter bankruptcy of the grand old party of India. The timing could also not be more unfortunate. Could we, for instance, ask Mr. Gandhi to explain how exactly his father, late Rajiv Gandhi, would have saved the structure by standing before it?

Let us assume that the former Prime Minister managed to personally reach the structure with his personal security guards on December 6, 1992 (for there is no way he would have become Prime Minister in 1991; even the postponed elections did not get the Congress a majority after his assassination). Once the mob broke the cordon and the domes were scaled, does Rahul mean to suggest that the security guards would have started firing upon the unarmed people, like the party's Communist comrades just did recently at Nandigram? Is that what has inspired this statement? Having spoken, he owes the nation a fuller explanation for his words.

Rahul Gandhi is the perfect example of how city-bred hereditary politicians, especially ones who pride themselves as being 'above' the hoi-polloi, can fail to connect with the minds and hearts of the people. He exposes the ancient truth that youth without proper education and training can more often than not produce a greater disaster for a nation or society than the old. Rahul has erred in relying upon the old bankrupt formula of wooing Muslims even at the expense of alienating Hindus. Scratching thinly-healed communal suspicions in order to pressurise the Muslim community that the Congress is its only hope, is not the road to power.

Besides his graceless attack upon former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rahul has exposed his father's communal doublespeak on the issue of the Ram Janmabhoomi. For as is well known, it was Rajiv Gandhi's government that opened the gates of the Babri Masjid to Hindu devotees, and organised the shilannyas at the site, and even launched the 1991 election campaign from Ayodhya.

And in what is surely a politically suicidal remark, young Rahul has called the 1996 Congress alliance with the BSP a 'complete sellout,' as Congress had to settle for 125 seats, while BSP contested 300 seats.

guess where the incidence of poverty is the lowest? j&k. yes, at 5.43%, much better than the rate in kerala for instance, at 15%.

as i have been saying for years, the j&k fellows have colonized india, and coerce 10x the grants from the center that other states get. and yet they are not happy, the ingrates. they should compare themselves to their fellows being ground under the punjabi heel in PoK.

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Moksha

NDA's shining years

The Pioneer Edit Desk – March 26 2007

Poor were liberated from poverty

As prices soar and evidence of economic mismanagement piles up, we are hit by a welcome blast from the past. The latest data from the National Sample Survey Organisation, which was collected during the 60th round coinciding with all but one year of the Vajpayee era (2000-2005), finally proves wrong those who grudged the NDA its 'India Shining' slogan. The data shows that overall poverty declined from 26.1 per cent in 1999-2000 to 21.8 per cent. The fall in rural poverty was even sharper: From 27.1 per cent to 21.8 per cent. This should silence those who hold that the NDA's growth process was "not inclusive". Now, if we take our political comparisons further, it will be seen that three of the five poorest States from that era were not ruled by the NDA for either the entire period or more than half of it - Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. Though Orissa and Jharkhand, who come out poorest and fourth poorest respectively, were ruled by the NDA, it should be recalled that Orissa is unfortunate to have suffered long spells of bad governance when the Congress was in power in that State. As for Jharkhand, it is too early for that State to rid itself of the baggage of its past existence as a part of Bihar. If we were to look at the next five most-poor States - Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal - we would find that none of them was governed by the NDA. During the NDA years, NSSO statistics show that unemployment was also in check. The increase was very marginal for both men and women. Obviously, the NDA's big picture vision and its emphasis on infrastructure spending with assets to show at the end of the day - in sharp contrast to the UPA regime's foolish expenditure on ill-conceived social welfare schemes - yielded better all-round results than what we can look forward to now.

That apart, we need to acknowledge that in the 14 years beginning 1991, when economic reforms were thrust upon a near-bankrupt India, we have been able to shed more poverty than in the preceding 45 years. This is quite remarkable, but the success is obviously lost on those who continue to cavil against liberalising the economy and stepping up the reforms process. A duplicitous Left, which has the Congress where it wants, has virtually brought the reforms process to a grinding halt and thus negated the gains of the NDA years. Meanwhile, fanned by the UPA regime's bogus economics based on pandering to those who believe poverty is a badge of honour the national economy is today "over heated" and needs to be cooled by scaling back growth and thumbing down emergent middle class aspirations. That in the process the poor are bound to suffer the most and impoverishment shall receive a boost is of little consequence to the Prime Minister and his aides who insist that they know the best. They clearly don't.

actually the foreign coach is the least of the problems. the real question should be, "do we need foreign bookies in D-company to do the dirty deeds?"

or even better, "can we wean ourselves off this toxin?" yes, a national detoxification is needed.

i haven't read the piece (sulekha's ads annoy me too much) but i'd support the idea of regional-language instruction with english and hindi as additional required languages. this would avoid the production of deracinated individuals. i find that my modest knowledge of malayalam gives me a tremendous sense of rootedness. thanks to my father who insisted i study it in school rather than take the easy way out with high-scoring french or tamil.

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Girish K

In his outstanding piece The English Class System Sankrant Sanu quotes Kenyan writer Ngugi WaThiong'o on the effect of devaluing our native languages:

"The effect (of a cultural bomb) is to annihilate a people's belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves."

In the light of India's defeat in the cricket world cup, it is time to revisit this question. The cricket board thinks pouring money on a foreign coach will bring miracles, which obviously did not happen. This is nothing but the annihilation of the people's belief in their capacities. It is pertinent to note that India was better in sports till the 50's when their self-belief was not completely destroyed. In hockey and even in soccer (remember, they stood fourth in soccer in Melbourne Olympics) and even in athletics.

It is ironic that Indian languages were devalued more after Independence. Instead of asking us to throw out English and replace it with Shuddh Hindi, Sankrant gives highly practical solutions. The most important is to revert to the regional language as the medium of instruction at the primary school level.

yup, the general has brought home the bacon, namely untold billions of dollars in aid from the gullible yanks. it's party time for pakistan's middle class; the stockmarket is booming. and the 'liberals' of pakistan are perfectly in line with the army regarding terrorism in kashmir and elsewhere in india -- they see that as their birthright.

i never felt any commonalities with these 'liberal' middle and upper-class pakistanis whom i ran into at university and work. they are pretty alien, i thought.

re terrorism, their attitude is, what, me worry about a bunch of al qaeda and taliban? after all, they are all safely in the reliable hands of hamid gul and pals at the ISI. a couple of the low-level thugs are sacrificed every time the yanks start bitching too much. but the top-level operatives, such as osama (the guy with a serious kidney problem) and al-zawahiri are ensconced in luxury in some army-run luxury compounds somewhere.

this after the debacle with burmese gas and also any number of other hydrocarbon deals where the indian offers were finessed by the chinese, probably with more money and all sorts of goodies to the countries concerned (eg. nuclear weapons and support in the UNSC, etc.).

didnt the UPA (and dayanidhi maran) make this somewhat of a prestige issue? so why did they lose? is it incompetence? is it the poor infrastructure?

although, objectively speaking, it is better for intel and for india to put this manufacturing facility, which demands lots of water and power, in china. let them pollute their land some more. i hope indian designers can continue to create fabless fab operations, designing the stuff and not manufacturing it.

if there is something to sonofusion, he'll win a nobel prize eventually. although this stuff sounds pretty far-out, my instinct is that it is not like the pons-fleishman (sp?) fraud.

in this new climate of support for alternative energy, this is good.

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Prashant

Rajeev,

Is this guy from IITM (or is it C now) From what I'd read, his co-workers had accused him of seeing things that they couldn't see (while both of them were watching whatever it was, together). Here's the latest from NewScientist of Feb 17th.

Prashant

Reports that the bubble had burst for a form of cheap, table-top nuclear fusion may have been premature. Rusi Taleyarkhan, the physicist at the centre of a furore surrounding so-called bubble fusion, was last week cleared of scientific misconduct.

In 2002, Taleyarkhan, then at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and now at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, published a paper in Science claiming that bombarding a solvent with neutrons and sound waves produced tiny bubbles that triggered nuclear fusion reactions. Then in March 2006, Purdue began investigating allegations of misconduct against Taleyarkhan, amid accusations that the evidence of fusion he reported was actually caused by a radioactive isotope of californium.

However, on 7 February, Purdue absolved Taleyarkhan's group of any misconduct. The verdict follows independent verification of Taleyarkhan's results by Edward Forringer of LeTourneau University in Texas and his colleagues last November ( Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, vol 95, p 736).

yes, he should be made captain. he's no good at anything else. why, we did that for jawaharlal, and made him prime minister, didn't we, when we should have made jawaharlal the ceremonial president, where he couldn't do much damage and could have pontificated to his heart's content?

if this doesn't complete the image of cricket as WWF wrestling, i don't know what will.

Pakistan is reeling under a host of problems and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf seems unable to tackle them. With this, the frustration in the West is rising along with skepticism about Pakistan's role in Afghanistan. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has been openly blaming Pakistan for the deteriorating security environment in his country. A few months ago, the BBC acquired a paper written by a senior official at the Defense Academy run by the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The paper alleges that Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (I.S.I.), has been indirectly supporting the Taliban. The paper continues to argue that Pakistan's promotion of terrorism cannot be tackled unless the I.S.I. is dismantled and Pakistan moves away from the rule of the military.

The Persecution Industry: What are the stakes?

By Ramapriya Abraham

Human rights issues have the power to bring nations to their knees in the International arena by forcing major policy changes. Evangelical groups worldwide are abusing this issue to achieve their selfish goals by turning human rights into a game called 'Persecution' and making it an essential ingredient of their evangelism plan.

Evangelical groups claim that they are persecuted 'everywhere for practicing their beliefs' (i.e. , in all the 238 countries around the globe). The accused persecutors are liberals in the USA; Muslims and liberals in Australia; seculars in the UK; Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhist, Tribals, Syrian Orthodox Christians, and Syrian Catholics in India; Buddhists in Sri Lanka; Orthodox Christians in Russian Federation; Muslims the in Middle-East; Traditional Catholics in Mexico; and the list goes on and on. In summary, the group that is targeted for conversion by the evangelicals in every country is de fined as the offender. Persecution stories are flashed daily across evangelical news sources.

What is the truth? Was there really a crime? Who is the true offender in these conflicts? Why is it that only the evangelicals have problems with others? A rational analysis of their claims answers many questions. Missionaries claim that they are persecuted by everybody for 'their beliefs' and thus have problems with everybody else. What are their beliefs? The answer is in the Bible itself, which the missionaries believe to be the inerrant, uncompromising word of God. As quoted by Frank G. Huling:

There are the two groups in the world, children of God " those who have received Christ (John 1:12)", and the children of the devil "those who reject Christ (John 8:44)."

This concept was redefined by Jerry Falwell, the inspiration behind many modern day Western missions, as: If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being.

The missionary groups see the other side namely, all other groups, both Christian and non-Christian alike, that do not share their strict interpretation of the Bible as 'children of devil'. Such animosity has inspired an evangelical war that has been raging for centuries, with no end in sight. Intentionally or inadvertently, the evangelical groups continue to preach and practice intolerance. Yet for as often as they claim to be persecuted, nobody has come to their homes and abused them. Instead, they go to the communities of others and preach their beliefs; the resulting resistance if any is then reported by the evangelicals as persecution. They have problem with everybody because their beliefs, which repeatedly emphasize exclusivity and superiority over others, provoke hostility from the communities to which they preach.

Are the crimes against Christian missionaries true? Are all Christians affected, or is it only those who aggressively seek to convert others? Only through a detailed analysis of these events can such questions be answered. Let us evaluate some persecution stories reported from India:

Case 1 : Throughout January 2007, an incident was flashed repeatedly almost everyday in the evangelical world. The table below provides a sample of the titles used by various missionary news networks to describe the incident.

The central message of all these news items is "Bansi Lal , a 18-year-old Christian convert from Hinduism , was pushed out of a train by Hindu militants. Christians are persecuted for their beliefs." Christian organizations, including the All India Christian Council (AICC) and the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), condemned the incident, alleging that Hindu extremists had thrown Lal out of a moving train. John Dayal said it seemed like "murder, and nothing else."

However, a closer look at the sources from which the incident was reported reveals a very different story.

An 18 year-old youth, who was later identified as Bansi Lal, was lying with a severe head injury at the S-12 signal post near the Bolai railway station in Shajapur district at about 7 p.m. on January 8, 2007. A good samaritan took him to a hospital nearby. Chinmay Rai, the Station master of the Bolai railway station who did a preliminary investigation, said that passengers saw Mr. Lal sticking too far out of the door, which could have possibly caused him to hit against the signal post and fall out of the train. In India, it is common among youth to hang around the doors in trains, buses or any other public transport. The fact that the injured youth was lying clung to a signal post confirms that Mr. Lal was hit by the signal post, which seems to have happened because of the teenager's careless attitude. As described by the other passengers who are the sole witnesses, there was no indication of any pushing, dragging, struggle or aggressive force against Lal.

But if this is so, then how did the "Hindu militants" come into picture? Where did the attack and murder conspiracy theories originate? It may take weeks or months for the official investigation to give its final report. If the report says it is an accident, the missionary news networks are not going to publish any correction because the original newsflashes served their purpose to depict Christians as targets of abuse by other religious groups. Sadly, not just Hindus but a common man around the world wouldn't understand these lies and the reasons behind such propaganda.

Case 2 : When the bones of infants and fetuses were found in the backyard of the Ratlam missionary hospital in Madhya Pradesh, the following headlines were shown by various news sources, both Christian and secular/mainstream:

In this case, Christian news sources either blocked or misrepresented the facts. Christian sources were creating conspiracy theories or promoting hate against Hindus. Hindus are blamed in which they had no role to play. The incident was clearly a situation to be handled by criminal authorities, an incident that seemed to be an act committed by some hospital staff in relation to abortions and possible female infanticide. The Christian news sources manufactured 'Hindu fundamentalists' and inserted a Hindu conspiracy into the story to further the evangelical goal of portraying others as merciless killers. Why do evangelists do that?

One of the main purposes behind the falsehoods is to create stories that arouse sympathy for Christians, which in turn yield more financial support from the West. Every missionary fundraiser in the West uses these stories as part of their fundraising campaigns. The message contained in the stories is made up of three essential ingredients:

Christian missionaries are being persecuted;

The new converts to Christianity are not going to bow down to threats from other religions; and

They need your financial support.

These messages have a profound impact in America's Bible Belt and particularly among senior citizens. For example, the Portales News Tribune ran an article on January 27, 2007 that was titled "Hopping on the train". The story reported that senior citizens in Portales, New Mexico were raising money donations for Christian ministries in India by playing games like dominoes and Mexican Train.

Secondly, these stories often lacking scrutiny, silence, demonize and preempt any potential opposition to the missionary activity in their host countries by internationalizing any issue, including law enforcement cases, as human rights issues. Any Hindu in India opposing missionary activity is defined a "Hindu militant". A majority of Western media, which revere the evangelical Christian news sources, pick up such articles which are then picked by Indian media. US State Department often influenced by such manufactured news writes negatively about Hindus in its annual reports. As a result, Hindus become divided into two categories: the 'Good Hindu', who shuts his eyes, ears and mouth in reaction to any anti-Hindu activity; and a Hindu militant, who is likely to raise voice to evangelical activity happening around them.

Finally, the evangelicals use hate as a weapon to put more political power into their hands. This strategy works on the premise of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". In response to the stories of Hindu anti-Christian conspiracies, all the non-Hindu forces join hands with the supposedly victimized missionary groups, thereby strengthening each other against the Hindu threat. The following video on YouTube explains this point in greater detail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx4UTHiZrzw.

The evangelical groups are using the issue of human rights to play a dangerous game with public sympathies and international law, a game that actually hurts other Christians as a result. People are increasingly being aware of these manufactured news stories. When true attacks against Christians do happen, they may not be taken seriously because of all the false stories that came before. I urge Christian news sources to be genuine and more vigilant about the news coming from the Indian subcontinent, where reporters tend to be overenthusiastic in proving their allegiance to their new religion of choice Christianity.

I agree with my husband, who was born into a Syrian Orthodox Christian family. He believes that if these evangelical groups continue to resort to such blatant falsehoods and manufactured hate to gain support, they will eventually tear apart every peaceful community they touch.

Watch the following major missionary news networks for a daily dose of purpose-driven 'Persecution' news: